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Labour picks European election runner

Alan Kelly emerges as winner after heated selection process

Alan Kelly, a Labour member of the Seanad, came through a controversial and heated selection process yesterday to win the nomination as the party's candidate for the 2009 European elections in Ireland South.

Kelly, 33, beat off a challenge from Arthur Spring, a nephew of former Labour leader Dick Spring, winning 276 votes to Spring's 144.

More than 500 party members attended the selection convention in Cork. The build-up was controversial with disagreements over the venue for the poll and voting rights for members whose party subscriptions had lapsed.

It was also presented as a battle between Eamon Gilmore, Labour's current leader who is understood to be a Kelly supporter, and Dick Spring, although this was rejected by a party spokesman.

Kelly had disagreed with a decision by an appeal committee to allow late registration for 280 Labour Party members, 238 of whom came from Spring's Kerry stronghold. Spring, also